Sunday, 29 August 2010

It's Sunday and time for a Frank Robbins Johnny Hazard sunday from 1955!The first of four Sundays scanned straight from the original art by Bill Peckmann. First we have the full page and then, for those of you who want to take a closer look at Robbins brush strokes, panel after panel in larger format. Enjoy!

Friday, 27 August 2010

Quick before Disney removes this gem from Youtube. Check out the rough cut of the never released Disney short "Plight of the Bumble Bee" over at Thad Komorowskis blog.

And here's the story behind it's resurrection: Back in 1982, Daan Jippes retrieved some "stuff" connected to a never-produced short (which info he found in David R.Smith`s Morgue down in the basement of the R.O.D. building) from the loft in a toolshed on Disney`s famed backlot. Four boxes worth of animation-, layouts and X-sheets.Its available animation was eventually completed under the supervision of Burny Mattinson, some 12 years ago.The "modelsheet" seen above was compiled and lettered by Daan, in 1982.Thanks to Daan for the above info!

Wednesday, 25 August 2010

Today it's exactly 10 years ago that the good artist, Carl Barks, passed away. To remember him we'll bring you the first part (of three) of one of his Junior Woodchucks scripts: "Where there's smoke" from JW #16. The story was later penciled by Kay Wright and inked by Larry Mayer for publication.While Barks pencils has been reproduced in black and white in the Carl Barks Library I don't think they have been seen in color anywhere before. These pencils are from the collection of Bill Peckmann who also scanned them. Thanks for sharing, Bill!

Saturday, 21 August 2010

It's not every day you find a "new" artist that makes you go "Hey! That's good!" Well Craig J. Lane sent me a mail with a few attached images and thats exactly what I said when I saw them. (Even though I said it in Swedish, of course.)

Here's part of what Craig wrote

"[...] portrait artist and teacher Jim Schell has self published a book of his cartoon panels that appeared in the Pacific Stars and Stripes. They appeared under the title Occupation Outbursts. A few years ago I was fortunate enough to purchase three original panels that were listed on eBay. They in part caught my eye since they were signed Schell which was my wife Karen's adoptive surname. Since the panels were only signed Schell and did not include any further information on the reverse it took me a while to learn the identity of the artist. Thankfully and to my surprise Mr. Schell was still living and to my greater surprise had not retained any of his artwork when he returned stateside from Japan. Even though he was obviously a gifted cartoonist, I was also surprised to learn that he did not pursue a career as a cartoonist upon his return to Atlanta, but rather went into advertising and formed the Kirkland, White and Schell Advertising Agency. Recently it was brought to my attention by his daughter Susan that he had collected images of his assorted Occupation Outburst cartoons into a book. The images appear to be taken from microfiche which while imperfect have reproduced much better than I would have expected. [...]"

And here we have the three originals that Craig owns:(As always, click on the images to enlarge.)

And a close-up so you can see how nicely inked these are.

Finally a snapshot of the Pacific Stars and Stripes Art Department in 1945. In it Jim Schell is featured at the upper right.

Craig continues: "The books can be ordered through Jim's daughter Susan Tasse for $20.00 each plus $5.00 for shipping. Please pay by cheque or money order. PayPal is unavailable. Please make cheques payable to Jim Schell. Susan's address is:

1106 Standard Drive NEAtlanta, GA 30319

Susan can be contacted at susantasse at aim dot com. I am sure Jim would gladly sign copies if asked."

Thanks for sharing these images and alerting us all on the book, Craig!

Wednesday, 18 August 2010

The Barney Bear book that I mentioned in an earlier post is now out. (Actually it's been out for a while. I just forgot to mention it...) If you live in a country outside Scandinavia you might try getting if from this shop:Staffars Serier. It's currently out of stock but I'm sure they'll be able to get a copy for you.

Update: Changed my comments settings so that no anonymous coments are allowed for a while. Got lots of "spam" about porn in my comments fields. We'll see if it gets better now. In a while the anonymous option will hopefully be back again.

Tuesday, 17 August 2010

Time for another round of cartoonists biographies from the 1963 book "These top cartoonists tell how they create America's favorite comics". This time Phil Davis of "Mandrake" fame and Gus Arriola who was the creator of Gordo.

Michael Sporn posted scans of an original Gordo sunday, from the collection of Bill Peckmann, a while ago. So if you want to seee a fine example of Arriola's Gordo just click HERE.

Barks stuffMyself, I'm currently writing a piece that might be of interest to all Barks enthusiasts out there. It's about the stories Carl Barks rewrote from earlier stories in the late 50's and early 60's. Well, I've known about those for years and years, you might say. Actually, I'm writing only about the plots and ideas for rewrites that never went beyond the plot stages! The unfinished rewrites.I have access to some of these plots/ideas for how earlier stories could be reworked, but that was never turned into final script and artwork. And I'd be more than happy to see more than the seven I have access to. These notes usually begins with a sentence like: "Adaptation of Sept 1948 story" or "Formula from Oct 1948". So if you have any you want to share please let me know. I know they are out there. :)Will be happy to trade with scans of other unpublished Barks plots etc. The rewrite ideas I have access to are the following: WDC 32, 78, 79, 96, 97 and 98. Plus how a 1951 Li'l Bad Wolf story could be made into a Duck story! :)

And for an unpublished Gyro Gearloose plot from 1974, written by Barks for Gutenberghus in Denmark, head over to Peter Kyllings Barks site! Just click HERE.The plot was made into a script by Albert Cosser and drawn by Vicar. First published in 1976. See inducks entry for D3360. The story was heavily edited, I might add. But still, it's interesting to compare the two versions.

Monday, 16 August 2010

With the soon-to-be-released book "Polly and Her Pals Vol. 1: 1925-1927" I thought it would be interesting to take a look at some Polly dailies not drawn by the creator Cliff Sterrett himself. Whenever I read about the daily strip after Sterrett left it to his assistant/s it's mostly negative words. Well, I don't agree. The scripts are not the best I have to say, pretty much like other so-so funny strips of the 40's. But the artwork is just as fine as Sterretts own in the 40's and 50's. Here are some samples of what I believe are the artwork of Paul Fung. Pretty nice, eh?

PS. Always looking for "Gus and Gussie" drawn by Fung. If you got any for sale, loan or trade, please let me know!

Saturday, 7 August 2010

Ever wondered what Frank Robbins' oil paintings looks like? I showed some in black and white taken from Cartoonist profiles #8 in THIS 2008 post. But I had no idea what they looked like in color until I found a Facebook group named "It's Frank Robbins!" yesterday. There can be found several paintings provided to the group by Fran Robbins. (The widow of Frank, I'm told by reading various posts on that Facebook group.) Here are two samples. Many more to be found on Facebook.

Friday, 6 August 2010

As promised yesterday, here are three great original Johnny Hazard dailies by Frank Robbins. From 1944, 1947 and 1954. All from the collection of Bill Peckmann. Of the three dailies here the one from 1947 is my favorite. It doesn't get much better than this. Here Robbins really showed that he could do the Caniff/Sickles style with a stunning result. And he even did it better than Caniff and Sickles themselves...Enjoy!

As a bonus: Here's what the back of the 1947 daily looks like. :)

And speaking of Robbins, anyone who has seen this original Scorchy Smith daily anywhere?I won it on eBay many years ago, but it never reached me. So any hints on it's whereabouts are welcome.

Thursday, 5 August 2010

Here's something nice I picked up at the San Diego Comicon. A 1969 Johnny Hazard daily by Frank Robbins. You can always argue about wich period Robbins had his peak. Some like his earliest, loose, stuff best. Others prefer the slick 1950's or the 60's and 70's more rougher stuff. I fell for this one the moment I saw it. How often do you see three close ups in one and the same daily?

And for the Robbins enthusiasts and artists who wants to study his brush work, here are three close ups of the close ups. Enjoy!But, wait, there are still more to come! My friend Bill Peckmann has sent me scans of three wonderful Robbins dailies from his collection. Watch for them on this blog within a day or two!

/Joakim.

PS.Fans of Alex Raymond's Rip Kirby will notice that the Johnny Hazard strip above has a similar theme and storyline as this 1953 strip.:)I wonder if Robbins had the old Rip Kirby story in mind when he wrote his version some 16 years later?

Tuesday, 3 August 2010

Ah! It's blog time again!Before we left San Diego we made sure to buy lots of american candy. Stuff that we can't find here in Sweden. Like "York". You know the peppermint pattie covered in dark choclate?Well, I like them a lot and so does Hedvig. So much that she ate them all ...

Now, here am I, beeing grumpy about not having any York's to stuff my mouth with. Trying to read an old issue of Donald Duck on the couch.Guess who enters the room telling me how sorry she is?Then she shows me what she's been hiding behind her.Pancakes! With strawberry jam and whipped cream! "I'm so sorry" she says. "Can you forgive me for eating all the York's?"You bet honey! All is forgiven. I'm now officially mister happy face, ready to eat some mighty fine Mickey and Donald pancakes. Isn't she, like, the best girlfriend, ever? :)